Disney appoints committee to determine new, official Star Wars canon

Out of all the beloved fiction we have — television, movies, video games, comics, and so on — and all of the sequels, prequels, and side-stories, the words “expanded universe” usually lead to one thing: Star Wars.

The complicated Star Wars canon can be separated into two groups. The official, main Star Wars canon is composed of the (currently) six feature films and the animated Clone Wars series, while the expanded universe is composed of everything else — every weird book you see in the sci-fi section of Amazon, every video game, and every comic.

The canonical Star Wars universe is a mess, and now that Disney owns the franchise, the House that Mouse built has appointed a committee to sifting through that mess, and determining what the official Star Wars canon will be.

Before you grab your red lightsaber and misguidedly march down to Orlando to tell Disney to leave Star Wars alone, it’s worth keeping in mind that the best thing to come out of the Star Wars universe since The Empire Strikes Back is a video game from 2003. The universe could use some maintenance, and perhaps Disney could breathe some life back into it. We’re not yet sure exactly how Disney plans to tackle the canon; there are those who would prefer the entire expanded universe completely vaporized.

A member of the Lucasfilm Story Group, Leeland Chee, tweeted that all official Star Wars canon is now decided upon by this group. He explained that one of the goals of the group is to consolidate the film and expanded universe canons, and remove the hierarchy that separates the two.

It remains to be seen if this change will affect the upcoming films — the first of which is targeted for a 2015 launch — but after the critical disappointment of the prequel trilogy, it’s worth giving Disney a shot. Maybe it can revitalize this stale franchise.